You Have 15 Minutes To Respond To A Crisis: A Checklist of Dos And Don'ts

When a crisis hits, how you respond in the first 15 minutes can make or break your organization – and your reputation.

While we all know that crisis management training is critical for leaders and boards today, much of it still tends to be shopworn, focusing on the lessons of yesterday. The new climate of ultra urgency is rarely emphasized sufficiently.

Yet I have found that in those first 15 minutes of a crisis your response must be exactly the right message, delivered in exactly the right words, to the right audiences, in just the right way – or you will have to deal with your mistakes for days, weeks, even months to come.

Immediate response and indelible accountability – that’s a tall order for any leader.

Yesterday We Had The Luxury Of Time

It used to be standard to have until the end of day to get back to a press or customer inquiry about most crises. Even if the call was from a television network or local station, you could put off any interview until mid-afternoon. Then you might be able to respond by phone, or in a well-choreographed interview, in front of a backdrop of your choosing, to be aired on the nightly news.

Even in the iconic Tylenol crisis case – still considered by corporate execs as a best practice in crisis management – it took the company three days to decide to remove all bottles of Tylenol from store shelves, after several people were killed by taking cyanide-laced capsules from unsealed bottles. And that was deemed fast work.

Today Immediacy Is Key

When news is transmitted around the globe in a nanosecond over social media, featuring real-time pictures and videos, there is little to no time to position, posture or even understand the facts before you are pressed to make a statement.

Because, if you do not speak for yourself quickly, or if you do so poorly, someone else – antagonist, police, government, competitor or anonymous hater – will speak for you. And in the world of public perception, the first mover has the advantage.

What Is A Leader To Do?

Clearly the first 15 minutes after you learn of a crisis are just the beginning of what could be a very long haul. Lawyers whisper in one ear, “Say nothing, make no comment until we evaluate all the facts, and our liability.” Crisis managers like me urge swift action, to get out ahead of the problem, or at least keep apace. And at the same time, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit feeds are lighting up second-by-second with photos, interviews, information and misinformation you have never seen before.

The “First 15 Minutes” Crisis Management Checklist

The critical element turns out to be how to fit a day’s worth of activity into 15 minutes.

Following is my list for leaders of “Dos” and “Don’ts” in the first 15 minutes of any crisis – be it predictable or black swan – from the minute you hear about a problem to the moment you make your first statement. It does not cover the crisis preparedness work you should have already done (that’s another list), nor the entire arc of crisis activities you will be engaged in starting from the 16th minute until resolution and recovery. But it’s a place for leaders to start when crisis hits: